Lung cancer is the most common cause of death due to cancer in the United States. For 2002, the American Cancer Society predicted that almost 170,000 new cases of lung cancer would be diagnosed and that 155,000 people would die from the disease. Patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) make up 70% of the newly diagnosed cases.
Current recommendations for patients with inoperable disease include platinum-based chemotherapy plus radiation therapy in locally advanced disease, or chemotherapy alone in patients with metastases. Typical response rates are between 15% to 30%, with median survivals of less than one year. Meta-analysis of 52 phase III clinical trials randomizing metastatic NSCLC patients between best supportive care and chemotherapy concluded that chemotherapy increases the chance of 1 year survival by 10% and the median survival by 6 weeks. A recent report from the Big Lung Trial group (BLT) reported similar results. The aggressiveness of NSCLC is thought to relate to its ability to evade the immune system perhaps by suppressing immune response priming by means of CD4 regulatory cells and/or by producing immunosuppressive cytokines such as TGF-β.
Thus, there exists the need to develop effective therapies to treat a tumor, including cancers such as lung cancer. The present invention satisfies this need and provides related advantages as well.